It is an autumn day and we are off in
search of one of Switzerland's rather less well know paddle steamers, the little
Fribourg, which istucked away in the rather difficult to access
village of Portalban on the east shore of Lake Neuchatel.

So far as I can see from the Swiss
timetables, the only way in is to take the boat from Neuchatel at 12.10pm and
the Post Bus out at 13.47. If we miss either of these we are a bit stumped as
there are no other boats until 18.35 and post buses run here only every two
hours on a Saturday. Time is therefore short and of the essence.

So here we are in the harbour at
Neuchatel ready to start our adventure. And what's this? A modern motor vessel
also called Fribourg.

It is a calm and mild day, with the lake
slightly warmer than the air and we have arrived at Portalban by boat at 12.38.

This is the pier but, so far, no sign of
the Fribourg. Apparently she is a little bit inland.

We are at the end of the pier now and the village beckons
in the distance. Ou est le Fribourg?

Still no sign of herbut: Hang on. Look! There is a
Swiss flag ahead on the left of the main street in the distance. Is that on a
hotel or could it be on the Fribourg herself?

Yes, hurrah! Here she is in the car park of the Hotel St
Louis.

The paddle wheels have gone but, never
mind, the ship herself is still here.

Built by Escher Wyss in 1913 the
Fribourg is of the "half deck" steamer design with a few steps down to the
lower aft saloon and a few steps up to the deck above it. She was also
constructed
with a low air draught to get under the bridges in the canals which connect
Lakes Neuchatel, Biel and Murten.

The tide seems to be out in her own
private lagoon.

Attached, literally, to the hotel,
Fribourg earns a living as a restaurant and bar and, today, even out of
season, seems to be doing quite nicely with the local clientele.

The rudder, set permanently at hard to port.

Dangling down from her starboard side are her old steering
chains which once connected the ship's wheel to the rudder. Like many Swiss
paddle steamers, before the introduction of modern electric steering,
these chains often ran along the outside of the hull and under the sponsons and
rubbing band.

Let's go aboard.

Today the Fribourg is pretty much wall to wall
restaurant and bar. We are sitting about where the engine used to be looking
aft.

Turning round to look forward, the
original structure is still there including the old railway train type up and
down windows with the leather straps for opening them.

OK, the Fribourg has lost her engines and is not
exactly as she was in her heyday on the lake. OK the ship's boat is now a sort
of nautical window box bedecked in geraniums red. But she is still here. And I
found the sight of her sitting there in state still earning a living four
decades after she was withdrawn rather uplifting.

But time is short. We must hurry off to
catch the Post Bus at 13.47 (which, Switzerland being Switzerland, we can expect
to arrive bang on time) and leave the Hotel St Louis with its distinctive
and unusual restaurant and its Swiss flag seeming to fly, from this angle
anyway,
rather ambiguously from both the hotel and the Fribourg's stern.

I think that the Fribourg is a bit of
a good news story as is her one time consort on the lake, the paddle steamer Neuchatel.
Built in
1912, she found a second career as a restaurant and bar at Neuchatel but
is now being re-built at Sugiez with a view to returning her to operational
condition, equipped with a steam engine which once graced
the Chiemsee paddler steamer Ludwig Fessler.

So, hopefully, it will not be too long
before the flap, flap, flap of the Neuchatel's paddle wheels
will once again be heard on the lake. And, perhaps on certain days when the wind
is in the right direction and the circumstances just so, that joyous sound may float
down the pier, past the trees, on inland up the main street and down the
Fribourg's ventilating cowls in their land-locked location to cheer this
little ship's very heartand remind her of the happy days
of her youth when she, too, was paddling around the lake.